"Ui ar getin marrid". Pablo's excitement when pronouncing those words in his particular Spanish accent got stuck in Joe's head the following months after he broke the news. But finally June (or Yun, as Pablo would pronounce) arrived. Joe had worked overtime for the last few months so he could get some extra money and afford to go to Spain. He'd never been there before, but the sound of "extrimly nais gueder ol yiar long" that he heard from Pablo always was certainly tempting...that, and...well, of course, bulls! He wondered whether Spaniards would have them as pets. Then he realized that was stupid and shook off that idea of his head.
The bus to the pier was taking longer than he expected. As he looked out the window to another rainy day in Dublin, he pulled his map out of his massive backpack and he did a mental track of his itinerary to Spain. He had a wedding to attend to. He would take a night ferry from Dublin's main pier to Cherbourg, in France, so he would have enough time to catch the train from Cherbourg to Paris. He would have lunch in Paris, then he would have to ask for the next train to Lyon. Once in Lyon, he would cross the Pyrenees and then...well, he was sure there would be a way to get to Alicante once in Spain.
He folded his map, satisfied with himself. He tried to put it back in the pocket where he took it from but his backpack was too full to try to fit anything else inside. Joe looked around his backpack to see if there were any pockets in the sides where he could place his map. As he found one, he realized how big and heavy his backpack was, and remember how empty he had left his wardrobe at home.
Home. He thought about it. He remembered when he told his mum that he had been invited to Pablo's wedding in Spain. She didn't say much. "Well, good luck" is all she said. His dad didn't even look at him, he was immersed in some kind of business with a client. "Dad's always busy", thought Joe. He couldn't remember the last time he had spent time with his kids. "Mum wasn't any better, although she didn't work, she had a house to hold."
What Joe meant with that was that she had to rule over Joe's youngest sisters, who would do everything their mum told them. Clean the kitchen, wash the dishes, make their brothers' beds...On the contrary, Joe and his brothers could focus on other things, such as work, or studies...Joe thought it was very unfair to treat the girls (her own daughters, and their own little sisters) like housekeepers, but he was only one out of nine children complaining, what difference would it make?
BUMP!
A sudden hit to the bus' break made Joe realize he had finally arrived at the pier. As he put his massive backpack on, he had a strange feeling, as if a great adventure was about to start...
